Invoicing Software for Construction

Construction invoicing starts with the schedule of values—the line-by-line breakdown of contract amounts by trade, phase, or CSI division. Billed lets you build each application for payment against that schedule, showing the original contract sum, approved change orders, work completed to date, stored materials, retainage withheld, and the net amount due this period.

Owners, architects, and construction lenders reject draw requests that lack percentage-of-completion detail or fail to reconcile with prior billings. Billed calculates cumulative totals automatically so each draw ties back to the original baseline without manual reconciliation. When a project runs 12 or 18 months, you are not rebuilding billing history in a spreadsheet every 30 days or chasing down last month's numbers from your project manager.

For GCs submitting to owners through an architect's review cycle, this format matches what they already expect from an AIA G702/G703 continuation sheet. The fewer questions your application for payment generates, the faster it clears the approval chain and funds hit your account.

Most commercial and institutional contracts withhold 5–10% retainage on each progress payment until substantial completion. Managing that holdback across a 14-month project with 20 or more line items on the schedule of values produces exactly the kind of reconciliation error that delays closeout and creates payment disputes.

Billed tracks retainage as a distinct element on every draw request. Each application for payment shows retainage withheld this period, cumulative retainage to date, and the net payable amount—three numbers that must reconcile or the pay application gets returned by the owner's accounting team. When the owner releases retainage at substantial completion, or at 50% completion on public jobs where state statutes allow a reduced holdback, you document the release as a separate billable event tied to the original contract.

At project closeout, the complete retainage history lives in one place. There is no spreadsheet archaeology, no conflicting versions between your office and the owner's AP department, and no last-minute scramble to reconstruct 18 months of holdback calculations.

Scope changes are inevitable in construction. A site condition differs from the geotech report, the owner upgrades finishes mid-project, or the architect issues a revised structural detail during the concrete pour. Each approved change order needs to adjust the contract baseline so every subsequent draw request reflects the authorized total contract sum.

Billed adds change orders as documented line items with a CO number, description, and approved amount. The schedule of values updates automatically, and the next application for payment carries the revised contract sum forward without manual recalculation or mismatch between your CO log and your billing records.

For time-and-materials extras billed outside the lump-sum contract, track labor hours at the agreed T&M rate, material receipts with the contractual markup percentage, and equipment day-rates. Owners see exactly how each extra was priced, which reduces disputes and speeds approval. Keeping T&M backup documentation—daily timesheets, material invoices, equipment logs—attached to the billing record means you are not searching through job-site trailers when the owner's auditor requests verification six months after the work was performed.

General contractors sit between owners and subcontractors, managing payment flow in both directions. Each sub submits their own application for payment against their subcontract amount. You need to verify that the billed percentage matches the work actually installed on site, cross-reference it against your project schedule, and hold the correct retainage before releasing funds.

Billed tracks each subcontractor's billing, payments issued, and retainage held on the project record. When your subcontract includes pay-when-paid provisions, you can match sub disbursements to owner draws so you are not fronting cash before the owner funds the draw request. This protects your working capital on projects where the payment chain runs 60 or 90 days from application to funding.

Lien waiver documentation is the piece most GCs handle worst. Every payment to a sub should have a conditional or unconditional lien waiver attached, depending on where you are in the payment cycle. Billed links waivers to each disbursement so your project file is audit-ready. When the owner or title company requests a final lien waiver package at closeout, you pull it from one record instead of chasing paperwork across a dozen subcontractors.

Contractors frequently purchase materials weeks or months before installation—structural steel fabricated off-site, mechanical equipment with long lead times, custom millwork, or specialty fixtures. Contract terms often allow billing for stored materials if they are properly documented, insured, and either on the project site or in a bonded off-site storage facility.

Billed captures stored materials as a separate column on the application for payment, kept distinct from work-in-place so there is no confusion about what has been installed versus what is sitting in a warehouse. You record the material description, supplier invoice amount, and storage location for each item. When the material is installed, it moves from stored materials to completed work on the next draw, keeping the schedule of values accurate without double-billing or missed revenue.

For owners and construction lenders reviewing the draw request, stored materials documentation answers the three questions they always ask: where is the material, is it insured, and has the supplier been paid? Including purchase orders or supplier invoices as backup reduces the back-and-forth that delays payment approval. On larger commercial projects where stored materials represent six figures or more, getting this documentation right directly impacts your monthly cash position.

Every completed project is a data set for your next bid. Billed tracks labor, materials, equipment rental, and subcontractor costs against the original estimate by phase, trade, or cost code. When the project closes, you compare actual costs to budgeted amounts and identify exactly where margin held and where it leaked.

Did concrete cost more per yard than you estimated? Did the electrical sub's change orders erode your general conditions contingency? Were T&M extras profitable or did you undercharge the labor markup? These are the questions that separate contractors who grow their margins year over year from those who win work and quietly lose money on execution.

Post-project profitability reviews by cost code feed directly into your estimating database. The next time you bid a similar scope—a ground-up retail build or a tenant improvement—your unit prices reflect real field conditions from your own completed work, not the supplier quote from two years ago or the labor production rate you borrowed from a competitor's bid. Over 10 or 20 projects, this feedback loop between billing data and estimating is the difference between a 3% net margin and an 8% net margin.